Pubdate: Wed, 28 Feb 2007
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2007 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Duncan Campbell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hallucinogens.htm (Hallucinogens)

THE TRIP GOES ON

It was the drug that fuelled the psychedelic 60s - and was tested as 
a weapon by MI6. But whatever became of LSD? Duncan Campbell traces 
its colourful past, and finds that the acidheads are still out there

'I was seeing what Adam had seen on the morning of his creation - the 
miracle, moment by moment, of naked existence ... flowers shining 
with their inner light and all but quivering under the pressure with 
which they were charged ... words like 'grace' and 'transfiguration' 
came to mind." That was the writer Aldous Huxley extolling the 
benefits of LSD from his vantage point in the Hollywood Hills in 
1953, and he remained, right up to his death - and possibly beyond - 
an admirer of the substance. He even took it on his deathbed in 1963 
so that he could enter the afterlife with, as it were, his doors of 
perception wide open. Some of LSD's other proponents are still with 
us. Albert Hofmann, the biochemical researcher credited with 
discovering LSD in Switzerland in 1943 - he described it as his 
"problem child" - celebrated his 100th birthday in Basle last year. 
But where does LSD feature in the drugs firmament today?

This month sees the updated republication, after 20 years, of The 
Brotherhood of Eternal Love by David May and Stewart Tendler, the 
book that charted the history of the LSD counter-culture and the 
so-called Brotherhood that distributed it so energetically in the 60s 
and 70s. The book's epilogue brings us up to date with the surviving 
members of the tale.

LSD has certainly had a long, strange trip since it gained worldwide 
attention in the 60s. Timothy Leary, its most famous promoter, 
dropped out of his earthly existence in 1996 and his ashes were, 
appropriately enough, blasted into space.

His book, The Politics of Ecstasy, still sells well and there have 
been reports in the past few months of plans for various feature films.

One of them would involve Leonardo DiCaprio, who knew Leary and has 
always been interested in a life that involved espousing the drug, 
being busted, escaping from prison, holing up in Algeria and 
eventually ending up on the lecture circuit as a double-act with the 
Watergate burglar Gordon Liddy.

Augustus Stanley Owsley III, the San Francisco chemist who produced 
the famous "Owsley" dosages of LSD, is now in his 70s. He has long 
since left the production game and lives in Australia, where he sells 
jewellery, carvings and music from a website under his nickname, 
Bear. Owsley, described by US agents as "the man who did for LSD what 
Henry Ford did for the motorcar" and called "God's secret agent" by 
Leary, also writes essays on his website, still campaigning against 
the drugs laws and arguing that "the use of substances which alter in 
various ways the consciousness of man is an extremely ancient and 
established practice."

The Brotherhood of Eternal Love ran the drug's largest international 
network, stretching from California to Hawaii and Afghanistan, with a 
UK branch in the unlikely spot of Broadstairs, Kent. Described by the 
California department of justice as "a pseudo-religious organisation 
responsible for the manufacture and distribution of LSD on a 
worldwide level", it operated more or less with impunity between 1966 
and 1971 and had an estimated 750 people involved before it came unstuck.

Many of them ended up behind bars, but some are still out there, 
somewhere, hoping that the FBI has forgotten them.

Britain's best-known LSD network, which prompted what became known as 
Operation Julie, included a couple of doctors, two chemists, a 
teacher and an author.

A total of 15 people were jailed for up to 13 years at Bristol crown 
court in 1978 after they were infiltrated by undercover police, some 
of whom inadvertently ingested some of the drug and had their own 
trippy experiences.

The drug also had a sinister sub-life within the intelligence world: 
the CIA experimented with it and even made an unsuccessful attempt to 
slip some into Fidel Castro's system before he made a TV broadcast.

In Britain, in the 50s, servicemen were given the drug without being 
told, so that MI6 could study its effects.

Last year, three of the servicemen received thousands of pounds in 
damages for being used as unwitting guinea pigs. One had described 
seeing, "Salvador Dali-style faces and cracks in people's faces". He 
had been told the tabs he was instructed to take were an attempt to 
find a cure for the common cold.

Officially, the production and use of LSD have diminished 
considerably since the days when psychedelia was fashionable, but 
there is still a strong underground market. "The interesting thing 
about LSD is that 20 years ago it cost UKP 1.75 and it still costs 
about the same today," says Mike Jay, a trustee of the drugs policy 
foundation Transform and author of The Emperor of Dreams, a history 
of drugs in the 19th century. "It tends to be distributed now by 
enthusiasts rather than profiteers. It's an insider market and it's a 
seasonal thing.

Every May or June, reasonably large amounts come in from California 
and Holland. The quality is quite good and it's not watered down as 
it was in the 70s and 80s."

"It is used much less than even a few years ago," says Matt McNamee 
of the drugs advice organisation Release. "People usually still put 
much more spiritual significance into it; they prepare for it in a 
way they don't with most other drugs." Users preferred the notion of 
taking LSD while "running across meadows with wildflowers" rather 
than ingesting it in a noisy club, he says. Dr Luke Mitcheson, a 
clinical psychologist with the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, 
has just published with colleagues a study of hallucinogens among UK 
dance users.

They noted that "the marked decline in LSD prevalence would seem very 
curious ... One possibility is that LSD's much longer duration is 
less compatible with leisure lifestyles that are organised around an 
evening out."

But there are still risks for anyone seeking to produce the drug, and 
dealing in it carries a 14-year jail sentence.

In 2000, there was a spectacular bust in Kansas when William Pickard 
and Clyde Apperson were arrested by Drugs Enforcement Administration 
agents as they tried to move their mobile lab out of a grain silo. 
The agents claimed to have found 41.3 kilos (90lbs) of the drug - 
enough, they said, to make an estimated 10 million doses.

But by 2004, a total of just 317,321 doses were seized worldwide.

Seizures in this country are relatively tiny - around 7,000 doses in 
2004, the last year for which figures are available. Jay reckons that 
well over 90% of the LSD trafficked around the world is below the 
radar of customs officers as it remains one of the easiest of drugs 
to smuggle, whether in liquid form - in, say, a nasal spray, or on 
blotting paper hidden in a book or wallet.

"I don't think that the Brotherhood had a beginning and I don't think 
that the Brotherhood had an end," says Nick Sand, one of the original 
bootleg chemists interviewed for the new edition of the book. "The 
Brotherhood exists.

We are still brothers because we shared the light. The Brotherhood is 
still there between us. So has the Brotherhood died? No, of course not".

The Brotherhood of Eternal Love by Stewart Tendler and David May is 
published by Cyan Books
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom